ps in newly-cleared land. All the long
October day they would toil, raising a stack of dry limbs upon the
stump which needed to be removed. In the evening when twilight came and
the stars shone out, they would light the brush and watch the flames
greedily devour the pile. In the morning when the lads returned to the
scene of the fire, no sign of the stump was to be seen. Looking closely
they saw great holes as large at the top of the ground as a man's body,
and tapering to a small point as they went deep into the earth. The
fire had found the huge roots, and had tracked them into their retreats
and consumed them.

FIRE OF PENTECOST.

We pile the brush of time and talents and money and name and self upon
the altar, and the fire of Pentecost, which God sends as He sent to
Mount Carmel of old, will destroy not only the brush, but the roots of
sin, one and all.

CHAPTER V.

CHRISTIAN UNITY.

A COMMON PLATFORM.

One of the results spoken of by Christ in His prayer, and brought about
by sanctification, is Christian unity--"that they all may be one."
There is but one remedy for sectism and bigotry, and it is found in the
answer to Christ's petition. When Pentecost comes to us we are all
lifted upon one grand common platform and shake hands and shout and
weep and laugh and get so mixed up that a Presbyterian can not be
distinguished from a Methodist, nor a Friend from an Episcopalian
vestryman.

FALSE UNITY.

We have heard much about the organic union of churches. Many great and
good men have looked forward with sanguine hopes to the day when we
should do away with denominations. In a few cases two churches of
different sects have united and worshipped in one congregation. But the
causes of such unity are frequently far from gratifying. In D----the
Methodists and Primitive Methodists clasp hands and join forces because
they can thus make one preacher do the work which two formerly
performed. In K----the Baptists and Presbyterians unite because the
thirteen members of one church and the seven of the other feel lonely
in their great refrigerators and are inclined to make friends and
preserve life. The cold is most intense. In the far North the weather
is sometimes so severe that wild beasts, ordinarily hostile both toward
each other and man, crowd close together near the campfire of the
explorer.

With many churches it is "unite or die!" The mallet of the auctioneer
threatens the steeple-house, the young fol